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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

30 Days of Giveaways! ~ Day 3

And the winner of Day 2's Ring of Secrets is:

Elizabeth Sarah Hartwig!

Everyone else who has entered before is still entered today, PLUS for the weekly drawing on Friday of the $15 Bath & Body Works gift card! So keep on wracking up those entries! On Saturday, a whole new drawing widget will be there, so the daily drawings will start fresh too.

I've so enjoyed hearing everyone's favorite reads of the year thus far! Some of them I've read, some I have on my TBR pile, some are new to me, but all sound great!

Now, Wednesdays on Writing Roseanna are for "Remember When." So today is:

Remember When . . . Plots Were Dastardly?

One of my primary sources of information for my latest manuscript, Circle of Spies (Culper Ring Series Book 3), was a diary from one of the conspirators in the Lincoln Assassination. He, along with Booth and the other conspirators, was a member of the Southern-sympathizing secret society, Knights of the Golden Circle (K.G.C.).

In the diary, there's a single line that grabbed my attention. It had no bearing on my story, so I didn't actually look it up until after I'd finished my book, but it was something I couldn't forget: the yellow fever plot.

The wha?

Yeah...that demanded some research. Which led me to information about Dr. Luke Blackburn. He was a physician. He was a philanthropist. He was governor of Kentucky from 1879-1883. He spent most of his life working to stop the spread of yellow fever and is credited with the first successful quarantine against the disease.

He's also reportedly guilty of attempting to infect the Union troops with diseased clothes and linens. Modern medicine tells us yellow fever doesn't in fact spread this way, but there was in fact an outbreak of the fever in New Bern in the fall of 1864, and the K.G.C. were quick to credit it to a successful plot...though they were disappointed it didn't spread to Washington as they had planned.

And was that all of their terrible plans? Oh no. Another that they tried on several attempts was the planned burning of every major Northern city on a single night. They had agents placed in every major city, all of whom were supposed to ignite a blaze at a given time on a given day. Only...

Yeah. The plans fell through, and the K.G.C. who hadn't been assigned an active role were left baffled at why this "foolproof" path to victory was abandoned. Perhaps the members backed out...perhaps telegrams got lost...who knows. But can you imagine what might have happened had they succeeded?

Wow. Well the US would be two countries instead of one. I can't even imagine how things might have come out differently during World Wars 1 & 2 if the US was divided then. So many things would be different. Not just in the US, but around the world.

You know, something that struck me while researching my two Civil War books was that most of the Southerners didn't want a separate nation--they just wanted to affect the rules in one. Diaries I've read all indicated that they wanted to reunite after the war, just on their own terms. That really surprised me. So maybe (maybe) the country would have been one again, but with a different set of laws.

I think one thing would be that the states would have more individual rights than the federal government. There would be some pluses to that, LOL, though some negatives would obviously go along with it. It's hard, in this day and age, to imagine a world where the top powers would still have slavery.

But then, the South focused more on agriculture than industry. Think that might have been different too?

I don't think slavery would still be going on... at least hopefully not, but I do think that people would be having a hard time treating them as equals or excepting them into society. Basically I think our progress as an equal nation would not be as far along as we are today.

Richmond is a definite possibility, as it was the Confederate capital. Although Washington was also technically Southern, as was all of Maryland. It was only held in the Union as a result of martial law.

I assume the Confederacy would have eventually rejoined Union, since the north still was the seat of industry, and the agrarian lifestyle they fought to preserve would not have been able to compete in the rapidly advancing technological world. If they were smart and did it before the north recovered too much, they could likely have bargained for significant political power, giving states more rights, and possibly having equal representation north-south in the government. Today we probably would see political lines split into definite north and south political parties, rather than our familiar republicans and democrats, and maybe more parties within the north and south. For instance, I doubt Minnesota would have a significant enough southern population to warrant the south having a voice in its state politics, and so there would be rivaling sub-parties within the main northern party.

I have shared on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/angela.holland.359/posts/698154546880856

My answer today - I think things would be very different today if the Confederacy would have won the war. I think it would be more like two worlds trying to live as one or maybe the South would have finally overrun the North.

I'll answer the first one and I think that if the Confederacy would have won the war is that slavery would have lasted longer as well as a deep segregation between North and South citizens. Not only that, but I think tensions would continue to run high between each other causing potential battles.

I wore a hoop dress--petticoats and all--to 2 of my high school dances. The, like, year before the puffy skirts came back in style for those things. I always loved watching movies with the big gowns--and I admit, I'm a dress girl. I would LOVE to live in some elegant styles! (I say as I sit in my tank top and shorts and complain about the lack of AC in my living room...)

I had fully intended to answer yesterday's question until it dawned on me this morn, that I had not actually made it back to your blog! The answer is "Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald" by Therese Anne Fowler AND "Letters from Skye" by Jessica Brockmole - as I received both as ARCs! The first is a bang-on exploration of Zelda's life spoken so true in a voice that whispered her own; and the latter I finished this very afternoon! I'll defer saying more until I write up my thoughts properly! I'll simply say I drank through the letters as eagerly as one of the characters! Wow.

Meanwhile, today's question is about hoop skirts and the era by which they were fashionable! Honestly, I would have to say YES! because my favourite books in historical fiction tend to involve petticoats, hoop skirts, OR the Regency and Victorian styles of dresses which were just as complicated as the hoop skirts! Laughs. There was an eloquence in those particular eras where women were able to show of their femininity in such clever ways without worriment over too much or too little. They walked with an air of mystery which was initially alluring and opened up intriquing conversations! The men of course, would go from dashingly cheeky to a lint of sophiscation held quite the appealment I think from any singleton's perspective! I suppose I could gush a bit more, but as the 'boom booms' will be present ever so shortly, I'm in a bit of a rush!

Happy Fourth!And, how grand we're all in each day's giveaway even if we accidently forgot to key in our answer! Ooh, did you see my follow-up comment on Monday!?

One last thought: I do know they're a bit tricky to walk/sit in which might be one deterrent for me! I've seen period drama behind-the-scenes footages and I couldn't contain my smiling laughter!!

I would not have liked living in the hoop dress era - to hard to sit down, too hot, too easy to tilt up & show your "undies", too hard to maneuver through doorways, & easy to trip over (I'm not the most coordinated person), etc., etc., but - pretty, yes!